DCEmulation

Wow sir,

You're doing a great job!
I hope you'll get full divx/xvid w/mp3 support working in the future.
It would be great if we could just burn those 700MB avi's onto a disc to play them on our beloved dreamcast without having to convert or lower the bitrate.
Btw, do you think it's possible (in the future of course) to get those .srt subtitle files working?
I believe they're called subrips, they're basicly plain text documents with the subtitles which will be rendered on top of the movie.

Why don't you upload the project to github or google projects for example?
I've seen lots of positive feedback, maybe they're some experienced people like you willing to give a hand

Thanks for the interest.
Mpeg Program Stream ( audio + video multiplexed ) not supported in Beta 1, so the file extension filter is there for protection.
Wait for Beta 2, as mpeg program stream de-multiplexing is now working



DivX/XviD + MP3 support now fully working
But simply, the SH4 cpu can not decode mpeg1/2/4 video real-time faster than 480x272@24fps.
And it seems the Dreamcast's GD-Rom drive reads CD's much slower than modern CD Drives, so bitrate may need to be lowered.
http://multimedia.cx/eggs/cd-r-read-speed-experiments/

About getting subtiltes support, that is a good idea.
I should be able to write a module to support at least .srt format, I just need to look at some specifications of the formatting.
I will look at this, when everything else is finished with the video decoders.

Small bump, SRT subtitles support now added.

Awesome!
Keep up the great work!

Amazing job PH3NOM

Did you check if srt subtitles work with accents and that stuff?

Fantastic! I have a bunch of older stuff that's all SRT for subs. Everything these days has embedded soft subs and counts on people having libass. You might look into adding libass, if you haven't already.

http://code.google.com/p/libass/

Hello PH3NOM.

Has there been any progress on the integrated launching ability? It would be very nice to be able to say... launch any of the latest 4All projects, and then be able to return to the DCMC menu.

_________________

Well, I have a build of DCMC implementing SNES4all.bin launching, with custom code in SNES4all to return to DCMC in the emulator menu.
It will be easy to implement this in the newest release of the emulator, and any of the other 4all emulators.
But, I would like to make some tests with modifying the k:os application loader, to enable passing parameters to the main function. I am not sure if it is even possible.

I have worked out a few bugs in the initial release, and added a few new formats( .roq, .s3m, .adx )
But mainly my time spent on the project has with the video decoders( this is a complex thing to do right )

I'm looking forward to the next release, and will test that *.s3m support out. Yes, I'd imagine that video decoding on the DC would be a feat.

About the planned binary launching capabilities.. Will they work from cd-r, or is it only a sd card thing? Because, I could think of a couple other DC programs that would be nice to launch. Mostly because they are still being worked on, will something like ScummVM (Libronin), or CrabEmu ever be possible?

_________________

A year after the first release, the project is not dead!

Progress continues.

Looks great dude! You continue to impress me.

_________________
..::SEGA-DC.DE - The home of the German Dreamcast scene::..

Thanks for update, i am looking forward for next public version.

_________________
Order Fast Striker, GunLord and NEO XYX for Dreamcast at http://www.ngdevdirect.com
Order 2d/3d Shoot 'em up Sturmwind http://www.redspotgames.com/shop
Order Dux 1.0, Redux incl. Dux 1.5 and The Ghost Blade at http://hucast.com/index.php

This is a fantastic project, PH3NOM. Keep up the good work!

The AVi demuxer I was using before was wasting a ton of memory, by allocating memory to hold offsets for each chunk, and would crash on large files on Dreamcast.
Because of this, I have written a brand new AVI parser that is much more efficient.

With the extra RAM, I have modified the decoder routine, so that now the XviD frames are decoded(in the main thread) into a large buffer that is streamed to the PVR (in a separate thread).
In this method, no CPU time is being wasted.

So, I am starting to become happy with the results. I still need to solidify the Audio/Video synchronization.

Hopefully I can release something relatively soon.

These screenshots are taken from a video that is decoding full speed on Dreamcast.

Wow awesome new hud, subtitles...

And improement in performance.
This is turning an awesome and must-have app on any dc.

Let us know if you need further testing or feedback.

Can you upload your most current build?:)

Dying to try the latest features.

PH3NOM, this looks absolutely amazing from both a functional standpoint and a sex appeal standpoint.

_________________
Elysian Shadows - 2D RPG for Sega Dreamcast and PC:
http://elysianshadows.com/

Question: is this an app that loads from an sd card running homebrew or does it replace the stock os or whatever on the dreamcast much like the media center for the xbox did?

_________________

This is looking quite promising. I'm sure there are some pretty tight limits on what the Dreamcast has the horsepower for, particularly when it comes to video... but it looks like you're pressing it for all it's worth, not to mention providing a great interface.



What? How would you do that without performing a rather intensive hardware mod (i.e. replacing or otherwise overriding the BIOS)? The only time I've ever heard of custom firmware on the DC was a VERY elaborate Cryptic Allusion experiment.

Thanks for all the positive response!

This week is a break from school but still working full time to pay bills

Lately I have been spending my limited free time ( outside of snowboarding ( here in Colorado the season has started ), hanging out with friends, and girls ) studying 3D game theory, logic and such.

But with the positive response, maybe I will up the priority of this project in my queue